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Love & Hugs,
Glen

Help to determine if you or a loved one suffers
from gambling addiction, and what to do about it.
Find help, research, links and other resources.

One night I got into a poker game with some
friends and lost $ 100. I decided I would drive 100 miles to another state
to gamble, there. I lost $ 150 and drove home. On my way home, I
decided to get my last $ 100 from the ATM at my Credit Union, only to discover I
was $ 4 short of the minimum. So, I faked a deposit, inserted an empty
deposit envelope, withdrew $ 100, and drove 100 miles to get my money back from
the casino. I'm sure I don't need to tell you, I lost...and got into a lot
of trouble with the Credit Union. If you had asked me, then, I would have
told you that I don't have a compulsive gambling addiction problem. What
do you think?

Compulsive Gambling Facts

The fact is, no addict wants to admit
they have a problem. Let me ask
you some questions that may reveal if
you have a compulsive gambling problem.
Do you have trouble meeting the monthly
bills, but no trouble finding money to
gamble? Do you have trouble
stopping once you've lost the amount you
planned on gambling? If you gamble
with any kind of slot machine, do you
remove your winnings or play until they
are gone? When you lose, do you
complain that the game is rigged?

We addicts have trouble facing the fact that we,
not they, are responsible for our own actions. Actually, compulsive
gamblers are some of the most optimistic people I've ever met. Before they
pay their bills, they will go and risk their money on the same game that, just
last week, they said was rigged. That's optimism! Actually, it's
delusion. My mother used to ask me, "How do you think they pay for
those large expensive buildings?" The fact is, we pay for them.
The game is rigged...the house always wins. You may hit a jackpot every
now and then, but, over time, they win.
To understand more about this, here's a
list the the latest
popular books about gambling addiction.

Gambling Addictions:
My Grandfather owned a cigar shop/card house in California.
He would say he made his
money on people trying to get their
money back. The real money in
gambling is taking advantage of
people who already lost so much,
they're desperate to get it back...addicts. The
casinos know something about
compulsive gambling addiction that we addicts need to learn...the
Addiction Cycle. We have an emptiness or negative self-image. All
the signals around us suggest, if we had more money, then we could be
fulfilled, buying whatever we desire. Since we're not getting enough
income for this from our jobs, we feel the lottery, or the bingo parlor, or the
card room or the casino can provide us what we want. After all, didn't
uncle Joe just win another $ 15,000 jackpot? He never loses! (He never
tells you when he loses.) So you take some money to go and cash in.
You lose...a lot. You're so embarrassed and humiliated that your
self-image is damaged even further. The guilt compels you to try even
harder next time with more money, so you can regain your pride...but you lose
again, taking you even lower. Until you do something to break the cycle,
you'll grind yourself ever lower and more addicted.

Effects of Compulsive Gambling:
The effects of compulsive gambling are almost
immediately devastating. One person I know used to visit Las Vegas on
vacation and had a lot of fun. They decided to retire in Las Vegas, so,
they sold their house and moved. Once there, they bought a condominium and
banked the rest of their equity and life savings. Within 3 years, their
savings were gone and they were so deep in credit card debt they had to file
bankruptcy. In Reno and Las Vegas, you can get used luxury cars at very
reasonable prices from car lots that specialize in giving gambling addicts money
to use to get back the money they lost. With debit cards and home equity
lines of credit, you can literally pump your home into a slot machine one pull
at a time. Families are broken, lives are ruined, all because of someone
fooling themselves into believing they can be fulfilled by a jackpot.

Gambling Treatment Help:
It used to be that someone with a
gambling problem could just avoid the
places where it was legal... riverboats
and a couple states.
Unfortunately, now states who still
pretend to outlaw gambling have
lotteries, race tracks, religious bingo
games, card rooms and Indian Casino's
popping up everywhere. Then
there's the online casino's to lure us
even more. If you manage to avoid
all those, there's the stock market and
risky get rich quick schemes that prey
on the same addictions. I strongly
believe the arcades you see all over the
land are just designed to train a new
crop of little gamblers. On the
rare occasion that you win a game, you
get tickets good in trade for prizes. One of my nieces used to
choose what prize she wanted and then set out to play enough games to get
it...just like her adult relatives did with the slot machines. Since
gambling is everywhere, we need to get control of our problem before it destroys
our families.

Work all you want on the symptom of
gambling, but no treatment of the
symptoms will heal you of the addiction.
Once you've filled the emptiness, you're
on the road to recovery. But how?
You've already found out money won't do
it because you've won a few times and
just continued downward into addiction.
You've probably seen the emptiness of
alcohol or drugs...even prescription
drugs to control addiction. All
they do is replace one destructive
addiction with another. If you've
been to a gamblers' anonymous meeting,
you know the answer...the real help to
your compulsive gambling addiction. It isn't the 12 steps...they're just a way
to get to the help. The true help for gambling addiction...for any
addiction, is God. He is the only power higher than us who understands our
weakness and can help us. He is the only one who can fill the emptiness
that drives us into addictive behavior. After He fills that void in us, He
gives us the power to overcome any addiction. If you want God's help, just
click on God help me.

Way2Hope News!

Always see a licensed medical practitioner before making changes in your health an fitness practices. Advice given at this website, or in conjunction with www.way2hope.org or e-Home Fellowship activities is not to replace the advice given by a licensed professional nor be taken as a counseling or clinical relationship but only as suggestion. We're just sharing things we've discovered, as regular untrained people. As a user of this website you bear full responsibility for your decisions and actions. External websites linked from this site are for information, only. We do not endorse any product, service or treatment. As a user of this website you bear full responsibility for your decisions regarding these products, services and treatments.

Bio: Glen
Williams is Director of E-Home Fellowship, Co. and Webmaster for
http://www.way2hope.org. He founded
EHF in 2001, after more than ten years of full-time service helping people with
life problems. Now, every month, people in over 160 countries come to EHF
websites for help with their problems.